Zummer speaks on the etymology of the word apparatus or dispositif, as it appears in Foucault and later in Agamben, on their use of the term to define the institutions and matrices of power that bind us, and particularly with regard to the power of the cinematic image.
Ranciere on the relation between cinema, movement and truth, or more precisely between the cinematographic deployment of appearances and classical narrative logic. Examining several films, especially Hitchcock's Vertigo as a paragonistic example of the medium, Ranciere works through the shifting play between truth and Aristotelian plot.
Martin Hielscher speaking about the aesthetic theory of Theodor W. Adorno, the need for an aesthetic theory, relevance, the truth content of the artwork, and the history and philosophy of art. Martin Hielscher lecturing about Adorno and a philosophy of experience, the possibility of experience, relief and liberation, the cultural industry, critical theory, universal mediation, products, formats, lifestyles, turns, phrases, activities, global cultural control and standardized entertainment products. European Graduate School, 2009.
08/08/2009
Ronell disusses her text Have I Been Destroyed? Authority, an Emergency Supply in the Absence of God, Ronell concentrates on whether the possibility of authority still exists, and if so what good it can be, now, after Derrida, the categories or disciplines of Western though have been rendered permeable and diffuse.
The Brothers Quay, introduced by Sigfried Zielinsky of the Media Theory Institute of the Berlin University of Arts, present a series of short works to the students and faculty of the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, during which they discussed their practice and methodology. Among works presented were Institute Benjamenta, Eurydice—She So Beloved, and Street of Crocodiles. Also viewed was the balletic film Duet—Variations for the Convalescence of A and In Abstentia, which was produced in collaboration with Karlheinz Stockhausen. Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee Switzerland 2009
08/04/2009
Michael Hardt positions a rise in consciousness about climate change in the context of the global financial crisis. Hardt reads from Marx's manuscripts and interprets them applying them to conditions of this age.
Judith Butler speaking about Hannah Arendts reflections on the trial of Adolph Eichmann, eventually becoming a confrontation with Eichmann himself, especially confronting EIchmanns evocations of Kant in his defense in a lecture entitled Hannah Arendt, Ethics, and Responsibility - How To Keep Company With Oneself.
Judith Butler teaching a class entitled Ethics and Politics After the Subject at the European Graduate School, in Saas-Fee, The first part of the class was given over to Hannah Arendt and the question of judgment, while the second half of the course dealt with contemporary politics as well as the role of gender and race.
Butler examines the phenomena of appellation, name-calling, particularly, the pejorative labeling Hannah Arendt suffered after criticizing the way the state of Israel came into being in 1948. Butler asks whether cohabitation is at all possible, between Zionists and Israel-skeptics, and extends this inquiry into an inquiry into the acceptability of trans-gender in society.
Žižek speaks about the production of the couple in Hollywood films, focusing initially on the film Titanic, in a careful analysis of the films narration to examine the theme of an occlusion by catastrophe of catastrophe. He used this subject to launch a discussion on the ambiguity of obscenity, on the horror of the carnival and the comedy of tragedy.
Žižek speaks about Hegel and Hegelian concepts of history and historicity, drawing not only on the works of Marx's Grundrisse and Jacques Lacan, but also on opera, Schoenbergs atonal revolution, the experience of impossibility, Freuds death drive, Steven King, Immanuel Kant, Martin Luthers radical revolution, concepts of authenticity and inauthenticity.
Zizek explores the ethics of Kant and Hegel, reinterpreting Lacan's "Sade is the truth of Kant" and Mozart's Don Giovanni and Byron to problematize Kant's notion of Evil as an acti ex nihilo. Zizek then approaches Antigone as a modern ethics nascent in Hegel where we cannot trust our own instincts.
Slavoj Žižek discussing the problem of negation and self reflection of life in Hegel, the logic of desire, Lacans master signifier and the object, opera, the masturbatory circle and the sexual act, as opposed to authentic love, Lars von Trier and jouissance of the other, pornography and the point of identification.
Slavoj Žižek discussing Hegelin a discussion on the notion of objectivity in film, referencing Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator, Leni Riefenstahl, the Nazi propaganda film Kolberg and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertig. He invokes Peter Sloterdijk, Jürgen Habermas and Scientology leader L ROn Hubbard in his contemplation on ethics, dignity, military technology, and pharmaceutical drugs.
Giorgio Agamben conducting a seminar on his project Homo Sacer. He discussed the polis, Homo Sacer, Aristotles De Anima, philology, arche, definitions of form-of-life and the division of life, method, operations of power, naked life, biopolitics, bios, Martin Heidegger, dasein, dichotomic as opposed to bi-polar opposition, Aristotles Ethics, dualisms, and Heideggers abysmal indifference. Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School (EGS) 2009
Giorgio Agamben conducting a seminar on his project Homo Sacer. He discussed Michel Foucault, Homo Sacer, the idea of a seminar as performance, philology, definitions of form-of-life, method, operations of power, naked life, biopolitics, bios, Martin Heidegger, dasein, dichotomic as opposed to bi-polar opposition, Aristotles Ethics, dualisms, and Heideggers abysmal indifference. European Graduate School (EGS) 2009
Giorgio Agamben conducting a seminar on the problem of form of life and the conception subjectivity. He discussed Heideggers dasein and welt-sein, emphasizing Heideggers being-in-the-world as an opening, or lichtung. Before moving on to Foucaults reformulation of subjectivity. Beginning with Descartes and moving through the history of philosophy, he touched on Deleuze and Foucault who attempted to transform the meaning of subjectivity. Agamben spoke about practices of subjection in Foucaults earlier work, and the practices of liberation and freedom in his final lectures. Focusing on Foucaults Lart de lexistence, Agamben attempted to show how the subject is founded through ethical practices of the self, as opposed to a simple encounter with the concept of truth; subjectivity is discovered then in the lines of errors, or errants, instead of standards of truth.
Giorgio Agamben conducting a seminar on the creation of the subject in the work of of Michel Foucault. Agamben examined the idea of the subject (through a discussion of the role of the author) by contrasting theories of subjectivity between Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot. Agamben discussed the chiasmatic relationship of the art making the art as the artist makes the art. He spoke of the movement of the location of subjectivity from autonomy to ethics, Nietzsche, praxis, the notion of indifference, the two meanings of ontology, the fundamental difference between essence and existence, and the limits of language.
Giorgio Agamben offering an analysis of power through an investigation of the paradox of monastic life in light of his concept, form-of-life. He spoke about St Francis, Catholic rule or regula, papal power and the history of the monastic experience. Drawing on a history of that shows the progressive control of the monastery by the church. He spoke about spiritualists, Pope John XXIII, the role of the apostate, existence and essence, law and life, Edward Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey, schema and rythmus, and looked at monastic literature.
Giorgio Agamben continuing the second part of a seminar called Literature and the Paradox of Monasticism. He discussed the the relationship between rule and life, and its original founding in the regulation of the monastic order in the middle ages. He spoke extensively about opus dei, meditation, and oral recitation of scripture. He discussed the concept of the rule which coincides with the whole of life and results in totalitarianism. Agamben discussed how Roman law was always singular, but under the Catholic Church became universal and thereby indeterminate. He discussed the translation of this indeterminacy of law in modern times, resulting in terms like rule of law and reasons for security. He spoke about his own work in the state of exception and homo sacer, resulting in books of the same name.
Giorgio Agamben continuing a series of seminars on the idea of rule and life. In this class, he explored the genealogy of monasticism, touching on subjectivity, music in the monastery, liturgy and prayer as a form of chant. He discussed the development of juridical law from Franciscan rule, Phillipe Lacoue-Labarthe, the non-juridical character of monastic rule, Spanish Scholastics. He spoke about the obligation of the vow and the vow of the vow, Immanuel Kant and the categorical imperative, as well as the idea of the other.
Giorgio Agamben discussing the advent of liturgy in the New Testament and Pauls letter to the jews. He spoke about the role of sacrifice and the performative act in the death of christ. He focussed on authority in liturgical act, and liturgy as eucharist, and the administration of the baptism.
Alain Badiou lecturing about mathematical logic in relation to Aristotles book 4 of the Metaphysics, in particular on the proposition of the excluded middle and its relation to the event as creative novelty. He proposes that of the four types of logic it is the fourth type of negation—the negation that obeys neither the principle of non-contradiction nor the principle of the excluded middle—is in fact the total destruction of any power of negativity. It is the null point of the first three propositions in which negation finally exists only as the negated. Badiou uses this proposition to illustrate his ontology that a thing—be it physical, biological, scientific, philosophic or juridical— is a pure multiplicity without any qualifying determination. The laws of the world are not laws of things themselves but instead laws between the relationships of things. Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee Switzerland Europe 2006 Alain Badiou.
von Trotta speaks about the making of her film Rosa Luxemburg, which she continued after Fassbinders death. von Trotta gives historical context to the creation of the film, the German student rebellions in the 1970s, and the Rote Armee Fraktion
Manuel De Landa speaking about Deleuzian ideas of subjectivity, and the function of the mind, habit and routine, delirium and perception. He distinguishes the history of Western thought in terms of Kantian and Humian, most thinkers have been Kantians, Deleuze, as well as Bergson belong to the smaller category of Humians.
Manuel de Landa questions the role of structuralism and the post-modern position in philosophy, De Landa argues for a view of a materialist world autonomously removed from the concepts of our own mind. His challenge, he says, is to remove a transcendental plane from material objects, that is to remove the concept of essence from the world, without giving rise to a metaphysical position.
Manuel De Landa describes 'intensive thinking' as an essential to Gilles Deleuzes materialism. de Landa then integrates the Deleuzian concept of difference into an exploration of the emergence of several concepts in modern Physics, invoking Aristotle, Hediegger and Einstein.
the difference between explanations and interpretations. De Landa stressed the importance of causes, reasons and motives to understand the properties of action in the social realm. He cuations against reductionism, introducing Deleuze's vital concept of emergence, emerging properties which result from the interaction of elements.
Manuel De Landa explaining Deleuze's notion of assemblage theory in reflection on contemporary society and discussing the notion of emerging properties in both tradition and rebellion during the formation of the nation-state over the last several centuries. Delanda compares the failure of Marxist revolutions, and the failure of Kantian categories with the insights afforded by Humian subjectivity which were so valuable for Deleuze.
Manuel De Landa discusses Gilles Deleuze's concepts of synthesis, nomadology and distributed variation as a way to undermine axiomatic thought and the monolithic perception of science in contemporary society. De Landa analyses the increasing divergence between 'royal' scientific fields and nomadic scientific explorations in the study of linguistics, phenomenology, and sociology.
Manuel De Landa lecturing about the relationship between immanence and transcendence, in Deleuze's materialism. De Landa discusses the works of Henri Poinacaré and Réne Thom in relation to the topological thinking of Gilles Deleuze, exploring some ideas from differential calculus.
Geert Lovink in a conversation with Lev Manovich about net theory, activism, Karl Marx, revolutionary media tactics, web2.0, the future of web3.0, and the necessary role of new theory in media studies. European Graduate School EGS, Media and Communication division, Saas-Fee Switzerland.
Lev Manovich teaching a class entitled Software Studies at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Manovich emphasises that software studies here means not simply the study of the platforms behind the software which produces culture, but is in turn used to look at culture itself, and how the production of knowledge, altered through software development has changed society and culture. His interests lie in the visualization of the organization of knowledge, including the monitoring of users. He discussed recent projects, including an analysis of television news programs from the 1960s to the present. Public open lecture to the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Lev Manovich 2009.
Noted author and essayist Nicholson Baker reading from his book, The Anthologist: A Novel, and answering questions on time, creativity and the act of writing from students at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. In Nicholson Bakers own words, The Anthologist is a story of a free verse poet collapsing in on himself through a series of missed deadlines. Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee Switzerland. Nicholson Baker 2009
Manuel De Landa lecturing about the duality of meaning in signification and significance in the Gilles Deleuze and Science seminar. He spoke about how these definitions shape perceptions and attitudes, drawing on Hume and Kant to explain the views of Gilles Deleuze. Referencing CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News to discuss the advent of advertising in the birth of media, and the resulting formations of power, De Landa explored ethical decisions both within, and without the Academy. Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee Switzerland. Manuel De Landa 2009